Starting a gratitude jar

In an interview of Elizabeth Gilbert that I listened to recently, she mentioned that she has a large apothecary jar which she fills with gratitude notes, and how even on the most difficult of days, even in the midst of grieving, she can always something to be grateful for. I’d been toying with the idea of starting a gratitude jar for a while and if Liz Gilbert was doing it, well I took that as a sure sign that it would work for me too;)

Since the gratitude jar would sit on my desk, I wanted to make it colourful and engaging. So I found an old jar and gave it a clean, and then spent a mindful hour selecting pages of all different colours from old issues of Flow magazines and cutting them into small rectangles.

I keep the papers in a clip on the top of the jar, ready for use. The fact that I don’t need to go rummaging for a post-it or piece of paper makes it super easy and often in the evenings while waiting for veggies to cook, I’ll reach for a pen, reflect on what I’m grateful for that day and scribble a few notes, fold them and pop them into the jar.

I love the result! There is something deeply satisfying about this analog ritual with a low threshold. No pressure, just the joy of seeing the jar steadily filling up with colourful papers, constant reminders of the multitude of things and moments I have to be grateful for everyday.